FrankTalk.org

Hey everyone,

After months of research, reading your stories here on FrankTalk, and a lot of personal reflection, I’m officially on the other side: I had my penile implant surgery on Wednesday, April 30th with Dr. Clavell in Houston. Today is day six of my recovery (counting surgery day as day zero), and I wanted to start this thread to document my journey and hopefully give back to the community that helped me make this decision.

From the moment I woke up after surgery, I haven’t had a single moment of regret. I knew right away that this was the right choice for me. There’s been some soreness and the usual post-op discomfort, but emotionally, I’ve felt nothing but solid. That peace of mind is a big deal.

I received an AMS 700 CX implant with the MS pump, and Dr. Clavell performed a penoscrotal procedure. I’ve had some swelling — of course — but honestly, it’s nowhere near as bad as what I experienced after my prostatectomy. The bruising is mostly around the upper left and right where the scrotum attaches to the base of the penis, extending a bit down the sides. I also have a horizontal bruise across the fat pad just above the penis. All of this has been manageable.

Shoutout to Walt Lewis for the recommendation of these awesome ice packs: https://www.amazon.com/BICAREE-Injuries-Reusable-Therapy-Breathable/dp/B09NR248K1. They’ve been a lifesaver for comfort and reducing inflammation. I've also gotten a lot of mileage from the Separatec underwear and baby socks.

One thing that’s helped my mindset is how I’ve chosen to frame this experience. Rather than thinking of it as trying to get back to my “old” self, or worrying about how similar this thing is to my original parts, I’m embracing this as a new capability — maybe even a superpower. It doesn’t have to replicate my original equipment exactly. It may well be better, at least for me.

Day 7 tomorrow and I plan to make an excursion out of the house around town for a couple hours. Hopefully I can keep this half-inflated dick folded up for a while.

Sunny Colorad,
welcome to the bionic brotherhood!
You are now on your way to complete recovery and soon start cycling and then...?
Going to have the best sex of you life!
Don't overdo with walking for hours, take it easy and increase your activity slowly.
Keep us on board.
ll the best
Dan

Hi bro,

We went operated the same day!
Hope you're doing well. Post some updates of your recovery so we can compare .

sunny-colorado wrote:Hey everyone,

After months of research, reading your stories here on FrankTalk, and a lot of personal reflection, I’m officially on the other side: I had my penile implant surgery on Wednesday, April 30th with Dr. Clavell in Houston. Today is day six of my recovery (counting surgery day as day zero), and I wanted to start this thread to document my journey and hopefully give back to the community that helped me make this decision.

From the moment I woke up after surgery, I haven’t had a single moment of regret. I knew right away that this was the right choice for me. There’s been some soreness and the usual post-op discomfort, but emotionally, I’ve felt nothing but solid. That peace of mind is a big deal.

I received an AMS 700 CX implant with the MS pump, and Dr. Clavell performed a penoscrotal procedure. I’ve had some swelling — of course — but honestly, it’s nowhere near as bad as what I experienced after my prostatectomy. The bruising is mostly around the upper left and right where the scrotum attaches to the base of the penis, extending a bit down the sides. I also have a horizontal bruise across the fat pad just above the penis. All of this has been manageable.

Shoutout to Walt Lewis for the recommendation of these awesome ice packs: https://www.amazon.com/BICAREE-Injuries-Reusable-Therapy-Breathable/dp/B09NR248K1. They’ve been a lifesaver for comfort and reducing inflammation. I've also gotten a lot of mileage from the Separatec underwear and baby socks.

One thing that’s helped my mindset is how I’ve chosen to frame this experience. Rather than thinking of it as trying to get back to my “old” self, or worrying about how similar this thing is to my original parts, I’m embracing this as a new capability — maybe even a superpower. It doesn’t have to replicate my original equipment exactly. It may well be better, at least for me.

Day 7 tomorrow and I plan to make an excursion out of the house around town for a couple hours. Hopefully I can keep this half-inflated dick folded up for a while.

Keep us updated! hope you recover soon.

Some questions:
1- Why did you choose the AMS compared to Titan? I know Clavell likes to push for Titan usually.
2- What was your size before the implant? and did you take any preliminary measurement with your partial inflation now?
3- Do you have any noticeable / palpable tubing around the base of your penis? Tubing is one of the things that bother me in my implant and i have read Clavell is actually good at hiding them

I hope you have a speedy recovery. It sounds like you're in the right frame of mind to explore this new chapter in your life!

Congrats!!! I’m just a few weeks ahead of you. Like you, I have had zero regrets. Happy to embrace the new hardware and discover how to use it. Once I was past day three a heating pad was soothing. As soon as you are OK’d to be immersed in water (check with your surgeon first) a hot bath is really soothing while cycling.

Happy Day 7!

I'll start here and fill in days 0-6 later as I go through my notes.

First, overall I feel fantastic relative to the invasiveness of the procedure. This is totally tolerable recovery.

Overnight is the only time when I have annoying pain and I figured out that it's related to being on my back for sleep. Something about that position is causing some "pull" at the top left/right scrotum attachment points. I suspect that it's related to the cylinder supply lines from the pump but I haven't palpated the area to confirm. This lines up with the bruising that started from the same spots. I'm just taking Tylenol at this point. The only way to knock out the positional pain was to turn on my side which was no problem - my nuts w/ pump did not complain.

My procedure notes show that I was inflated to about 50%. To tuck in the junk for wearing joggers I can fold my penis up, pointing north, as well as at angles from vertical, almost to 90 degrees from vertical, but not quite comfortable at that angle.

Discovernew wrote:Some questions:
1- Why did you choose the AMS compared to Titan? I know Clavell likes to push for Titan usually.
2- What was your size before the implant? and did you take any preliminary measurement with your partial inflation now?
3- Do you have any noticeable / palpable tubing around the base of your penis? Tubing is one of the things that bother me in my implant and i have read Clavell is actually good at hiding them

1. I chose the AMS for:
- potentially better flaccid comfort and appearance
- I'm not that wide and I think the narrower cylinders will fill my Tunica out just fine
- I liked the characteristics of the MS pump: easy deflate and low noise profile

2. Size:
- VED inflation was up to 7.5in (18.75cm) (bone press to inflated glans tip) - I started smaller but persistent rehab with VED got me back closer to the length of my youth
- Dr Clavell measured BPEL at 18cm (7in) during surgery
- Girth was 5.5in (14cm)
- Haven't measured current size. I don't want to over analyze this yet. Just looking at it - I'm happy - and I know it will just improve over time
- I didn't get a chance to sync with Dr Clavell after the procedure, but he called me to summarize how it went and he said something like "You win the trophy for the biggest penis today!". This made my year (decade maybe). Being a significant grower, I was always self concious about my flaccid appearance to women and in the locker room. I was always like, wow those guys' flaccid dicks are huge - their erections must be humongous! Anyway, I'm excited to know that I officially have a big dick. Maybe the implant girth will even feel larger than OEM? We'll see.

3. Palpable tubing
- The pain at the top right/left of my scrotum may be tubing-related but I can't tell yet
- The pump is well-placed posterior (behind) the testicles and extends down to where the pump bulb is around the same spot as the bottom of my testicles. It's hard to tell because the scrotum is still tender and I have not gone on a serious exporation down there yet.

Overall it looks like Dr Clavell did an amazing job. I am very impressed with his skill.

Discovernew wrote:I know Clavell likes to push for Titan usually.

Actually he would not give me a recommendation. We discussed the pros and cons of Coloplast Titan vs AMS 700 and he wanted me to choose. Either would have worked great. He said "What's your gut?" and I responded "AMS" and away we went! He didn't bias the decision at all - I feel like he is truly neutral.

He wanted me to choose before scheduling because he brings other doctors in for training and he likes to do all of one manufacturer on a given day. During our consult he looked at his schedule and he had April 30 open for an AMS day, and this was only 1 month out from our telehealth consult which was very appealing to me. I wanted to get this going!

I didn't mention that I live in Denver and traveled to Houston for the procedure. I stayed at the Hyatt House Medical Center. I booked a suite with a full-size refrigerator so that I could keep ice packs going. The room and service was fantastic. It was a great place for my 2-day post-surgery rest.

A brief note on my path to here...

I have had ED problems for years but thought they must be psychological. Then I had a prostatectomy in Nov 2021 and while I could still get erections by myself, they were worse that before and not viable for sex with a partner. Ultimately I discovered that my ED was physical!

I tried Viagra and Cialis and was on daily Cialis (I did 20mg per day for a few months in the last year). Clavell told me to dial down the cialis to 5mg. At 20mg I might see a half morning-wood. At 5mg per night I noticed a big decrease in any natural erection.

I started Trimix in June of 2024 and titrated through the lowest concentration (#5 I think) and into #9. I was up to 50 units of that and still was having trouble. I FINALLY figured out that the Trimix results were affected by my postion. While standing, I would have a good erection. While horizontal, it would wilt. In a December urology/oncology followup I mentioned this to my Dr (actually he's a PA) and the lightbulb went off "AH, you have venous leak!".

After I realized that it was positional, I tried to make that work. I had the first sex with my wife in years on Christmas Eve 2024. I knew that if I could stand at the side of bed, I would maintain a good erection, and it worked. At this point I bought some wedge pillow to help elevate my partner (I'm 6ft 3in tall) and we made that work for a couple months.

Eventually I knew that this wasn't enough - the lack of positional freedom, the lack of spontaneity, the looming potential of needing followup prostate cancer treatment (radiation and hormones), the potential that injections could scar my penis and stop working - all this was piling up in favor of the implant.

It was a scary decision - my penis kind of worked. Like I said, no regrets at this point. I worked though all that and realized that this could be transformational!

sunny-colorado, congrats and welcome to the bionic brotherhood ! What you said below is the key. The implant comes with amazing new capabilities, and focusing on the positive side compared with the past is the right head-space to be in.

- Chuck

sunny-colorado wrote:One thing that’s helped my mindset is how I’ve chosen to frame this experience. Rather than thinking of it as trying to get back to my “old” self, or worrying about how similar this thing is to my original parts, I’m embracing this as a new capability — maybe even a superpower. It doesn’t have to replicate my original equipment exactly. It may well be better, at least for me.